Life can be pretty disappointing, there’s no doubt about it.
And one of those big disappointments usually comes when we think we wasted a bunch of time on something.
And we all have those things in our lives, so don’t beat yourself up about it too much, okay?
Check out what folks on AskReddit had to say about this.
Oh, well…
“It took me 8 years to get my Chemical Engineering degree.
I never worked a single day as a Chemical Engineer.
I’m a Data Analyst now.”
Interesting…
“At the end of the ’90s, I decided to digitize my entire DVD collection into MP4’s.
I had more than a 1000 titles. I had a computer specially dedicated to this task, at the rate of one dvd every night i remembered to do it.
I burned through 3 different disk drives.
It took me 4 years to finish.
Now, everything is streaming in HD or 4K, on your phone.
Anybody interested in a 720p interlaced copy of Octop**sy?
Didn’t think so.”
Not using it.
“I got a B.S. in biochemistry, then drove a forklift for 14 years.
Now I’m an electrician.”
Pointless.
“When I was a kid, CDs were king. This was also back when a typical cd was like $16 at Sam goody etc.
I’d mow lawns in my neighborhood – 4 houses on a weekend, and get $10 each, which was good for about a dozen albums a month.
My parents also gave me lunch money for school – $2 a day – which I pocketed for another album a week.
So basically I sacrificed nutrition and my weekends for the entirety of my middle school / early high school years to build up a massive album collection that was the envy of all my musician friends. It was glorious.
I thought for sure this would be the crown jewel of my adulthood and that I would pass them on to my kids someday.
….and then when the iPod / iTunes came out it was all pointless.”
Miss it sometimes…
“Minecraft.
From 2011 to probably 2018-2019 it was like, my go-to depression game. When my depression got bad, some days I’d play for 12 hours.
Built a whole huge city with districts, multiple tall buildings, rail system, a mob zoo, etc. I kinda miss it sometimes.”
Career change.
“I spent half my Army career in various schools learning to repair nuclear missiles.
Now I’m doing desktop support and teaching the new guys how to install printers remotely.”
Too bad.
“Indigenous knotting.
I used to be able to make the most beautiful dresses, armors, and regalia using traditional knotting and beading techniques.
Broke my arm about a decade ago, got fat, and got arthritis. Now my hands don’t even work well enough to teach the next generation how to do it.”
Doh!
“Piano lessons.
Didn’t make my parents happy, didn’t make me happy, never got any good at it, gained no useful skills whatsoever for the several hundred hours per year for multiple years spent practicing.”
Still paying it off.
“I got an aviation degree because it used to be the only way you could qualify to become and air traffic controller.
The age cut-off is 30 and I graduated when I was 29. Well, they decided to “restructure” the hiring process mere months after I graduated and cancelled all hiring panels for 2 years.
I aged-out and now have a f**king useless degree that I still pay students loans on.”
THAT SUCKS.
“I managed to accidentally wipe the drive that held all my work. I’m a semi-professional game dev, there was 10 years worth of meshes, materials and code.
It’s been 10 days, I’ve just been in a sort of state of shock, having tried and failed to recover the lost files.”
Ugh. So much time wasted!